Speakers at the 5th World Forum Against Drugs
Wadih Maalouf, PhD MPH
A Public Health Professional (Epidemiologist and Statistician) originally from Lebanon.
Holder of a PhD in mental health (drug dependence epidemiology) from the Department of Mental Health of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
Joined UNODC in 2005.
My first assignment with UNODC was in the Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (ROMENA) in Cairo, Egypt. My role was as a regional epidemiology advisor tasked to orient countries from the region on assessing and monitor their drug situation and orient their drug demand reduction strategies (under a UNODC programme called the Global Assessment Programme).
My second assignment was a programme manager in the same office (ROMENA) responsible for a programme entitled “Promoting Best Practices and Networking for Reducing Demand For and Harm From Drugs”. Essentially building capacities of countries in Middle East and North Africa in prevention of drug use and treatment of drug use disorders.
I joined UNODC Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Prevention Treatment and Rehabilitation Section at Headquarters in Vienna in 2010. Since then I have been coordinating a global programme on prevention promoting best practices in drug prevention (with a main focus on family skills prevention and life skills education in schools). This programme has one of its key outputs the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention that were disseminated for policy makers from several countries.
The programme focuses on countries from low and middle income countries, the main regions of operation are Central and South America, South East Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, East and West Africa. I am still carrying this post.
The programme focuses on countries from low and middle income countries, the main regions of operation are Central and South America, South East Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries, East and West Africa. I am still carrying this post.
Boro Goic, Chair, Recovered Users Network
After years in addiction, he recovered from a drug abuse problem and started to help people to come out of addiction. He is a founder of Celebrate Recovery, NGO for re-socialisation of former addicts, which is based in his hometown Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina. He supported several NGO’s, networks and conferences in their establishment and is very active in grass root activities is his country and region.
Boro is active in CSF (Civil Society Forum) in EU, and several institutions on EU level with a goal to promote a voice for recovery from addiction. He is also representing recovered users in the Civil Society Task Force.
Cecilia Hajzler
Born in Novi Sad, Serbia in 1976. Studied Interior design in Belgrade. Finished the daily program of rehabilitation in Association for helping Addicts Restart in Novi Sad 2 years ago and since then working in this organisation as speaker, motivational adviser and project manager.
Bertha Madras, Ph.D., Professor of Psychobiology, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (faculty since 1986) and Associate Director for Public Education in the Division on Addictions.
She served as Deputy Director, Demand Reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), following unanimous Senate confirmation (2006-2008). She advocated for a public health approach to prevent, intervene and treat illicit and prescription drug abuse.
She served as Deputy Director, Demand Reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), following unanimous Senate confirmation (2006-2008). She advocated for a public health approach to prevent, intervene and treat illicit and prescription drug abuse.
As a neuroscientist, Dr. Madras investigated brain responses to addictive drugs and developed new brain imaging agents and therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders. Author of over 130 scientific manuscripts, she co-edited a book “The Cell Biology of Addiction”. She received an NIH MERIT award, NIDA Public Service Award, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry Founders Award, and 19 patents with collaborators.
Kevin Sabet, Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and Executive Director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
Keivn is the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana (2013, Beaufort) and a consultant to numerous domestic and international organizations, including the United Nations, through his company, the Policy Solutions Lab.
Keivn is the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana (2013, Beaufort) and a consultant to numerous domestic and international organizations, including the United Nations, through his company, the Policy Solutions Lab.
From 2009-2011, he served in the Obama Administration as the Senior Advisor at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). As a Marshall Scholar, he received his doctorate and masters degrees in Social Policy at the University of Oxford and B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
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